Consultant Psychiatrist in Old Age Psychiatry - Auckland ParkNHS

Job summary

This is an exciting opportunity for an old age consultant psychiatrist to become involved with inpatient service.

This is a full-time consultant psychiatrist post providing clinical and medical leadership to Ceddesfeld Ward. Ceddesfeld Ward is a 15-bedded assessment and treatment unit for male patients experiencing organic brain disease (the vast majority of which will be dementia-related) and the associated complications of these.

The ward is co-located with Hamsterley Ward (a similar 15-bedded ward for female patients) on the Auckland Park Hospital site which has separate consultant psychiatrist input from Dr Sarah Pearce. Together, the two wards work closely together to provide the hub of organic inpatient care to patients in the Durham & Darlington locality and have a strong reputation regionally for high quality patient care.

Main duties of the job

The Clinical PAs are 7.5 PA across the week and will provide clinical and medical leadership to the MDT and will lead the assessment and treatment of those patients on the ward. The post holder will be expected to work with a well-established, cohesive and enthusiastic MDT to maintain a high standard of clinical care for our patients.

The ward operates a report out every weekday morning, which is effectively a board round of all patients on the ward and would be expected to attend this meeting wherever possible.

The consultant psychiatrist will also assess and treat their patients in line with evidence based clinical practice and in keeping with the Trust clinical pathways (with specific reference to the Dementia and Behaviours that Challenge pathways).

The post-holder is expected to be the Responsible Clinician for any patients on the ward and will undertake any such duties that are specified by the Mental Health Act 1983 and attending Mental Health Tribunals.

The post-holder is expected to prioritise Mental Health Act Assessments for their own patients during working hours and be a qualified DOLS Mental Health Assessor for any patients on their personal caseload.

The Trust is eager to support the development of a special interest and this is negotiable either at the time of employment or at the Annual Job Plan Review meeting which takes place with the Lead Psychiatrist (or Associate Medical Director) and Head of the services (or Locality Manager).

Job description

Please see the attached job description for further information on this post. Please note the job description is currently waiting approval from the Royal College.

About us

We are one of the largest specialist mental health and learning disabilities trusts in the country, with an annual income of £320m and a workforce of some 6,700 staff operating from around 100 sites in Durham, Teesside, North Yorkshire and York and Selby. We provide a range inpatient and community services to 2m people living in County Durham, the Tees Valley, Scarborough, Whitby, Ryedale, Harrogate, Hambleton and Richmondshire. We also provide additional specialist services to other parts of Northern England.

We deliver our services by working in partnership with eight local authorities and clinical commissioning groups, a wide range of voluntary organisations, as well as service users, their carers and the public.

Psychiatrists are essential contributors to the majority of our mental health teams. Service users expect and are justified to expect collaborative relationships with dedicated psychiatrists who work consistently as part of effective services. The Medical Directorate and Medical Development Team are striving to improve medical workforce recruitment and retention in a variety of ways and the cornerstone of these efforts is The TEWV Charter for the Medical Workforce. (Please see attached Supporting Document).

The Trust welcomes conversations about flexible working practices.